2014 Dayton Literary
Peace Prize Finalists

Fiction

    A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (Crown Publishing Group)

    Two doctors in rural Chechnya risk everything to save the life of a child hunted by Russian soldiers in this majestic debut about love, loss, and the unexpected ties that bind us together.
    Anthony Marra
    Marra
     
    In the Night of Time by Antonio Muñoz Molina (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt)

    This sweeping, grand novel set against the tumultuous events that led to the Spanish Civil War offers an indelible portrait of a shattered society.
    Antonio Muñoz Molina
    Muñoz Molina
     
    Someone by Alice McDermott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

    In this delicate narrative about the life of an ordinary woman, McDermott uses universal experiences—sharp pains and unexpected joys, bursts of clarity and moments of confusion—to deftly arouse deep compassion for the lives unfolding all around us.
    Alice McDermott
    McDermott
     
    The Cartographer of No Man’s Land by P.S. Duffy (Liveright Publishing Corporation)

    This haunting meditation on family, friendship, and sacrifice charts a deeply felt course from the Nova Scotia coastline to the French trenches during World War I, bridging the distance between past and present, duty and honor, obligation and love.
    P.S. Duffy
    Duffy
     
    The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis (Grove Atlantic)

    Renowned for his revelatory visions of the Caribbean, Shacochis sets his magnum opus in four countries over a span of fifty years and multiple wars, creating an intricate portrait of the catastrophic events that led up to the war on terror and the U.S. as it is today.
    Bob Shacochis
    Shacochis
     
    Wash by Margaret Wrinkle (Grove Atlantic)

    Through the character of Wash, a first-generation slave, this haunting first novel explores the often-buried history of slave breeding in the early nineteenth century, offering fresh insights into our continuing racial dilemmas.
    Margaret Wrinkle
    Wrinkle
     

Nonfiction

    Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of
    Catastrophe
    by Jo Roberts (Dundurn Press, Toronto)

    Drawing on extensive original interview material, Canadian journalist Jo Roberts vividly examines how their tangled histories of suffering inform Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli lives today, and frame the possibilities for peace in Israel.
    Jo Roberts
    Roberts
     
    Here on the Edge by Steve McQuiddy (Oregon State University Press)

    Packed with original research and more than eighty photos, this definitive history tells the story of the artists at an Oregon camp for World War II conscientious objectors, and how they paved the way for the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
    Steve McQuiddy
    McQuiddy
     
    Knocking on Heaven’s Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler
    (Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster)

    Pondering the medical forces that stood in the way of her own parents’ desires for “good deaths,” journalist Katy Butler examines modern medicine's potential, in its pursuit of maximum longevity, to create more suffering than it prevents.
    Katy Butler
    Butler
     
    Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)

    In this universally acclaimed memoir, Ward recounts the separate deaths of five young men – all dear to her – from her small Mississippi community, agonizingly tracing each one back to the long-term effects of racism and economic disadvantage.
    Jesmyn Ward
    Ward
     
    Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus
    and Giroux)

    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Finkel follows veterans of the infamous Baghdad “surge” after they return to the U.S., creating an indelible, essential portrait of post-deployment life—not just for the soldiers, but for their families, friends, and the professionals trying to undo the damage of war.
    David Finkel
    Finkel
     
    Your Fatwa Does not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim
    Fundamentalism
    by Karima Bennoune (W. W. Norton & Company)

    From Karachi to Tunis, Kabul to Tehran, Bennoune shares the inspiring stories of the Muslim writers, artists, doctors, lawyers, activists, and educators who often risk death to combat the rising tide of religious extremism in their own countries.
    Karima Bennoune
    Bennoune
     

Read the press release.
Press release in PDF format.

 
Design by Anne Rasmussen
 
Implementation and ongoing support by Digital Stationery International, LLC